James Hetfield on Metallica: ‘There’s No Reason for Us To Stop’

Metallica recently performed at Australia's Soundwave Festival, and during the Sydney stop, frontman James Hetfield sat down with Channel V for a video interview (watch below).

Hetfield was asked about Metallica being selected to receive the Ronnie James Dio Lifetime Achievement Award at the Golden Gods Awards in May. "We've been doing what we love for 30 years, and we've had many awards along the way," Hetfield said. "I think the biggest award is recognition for changing people's lives and making an impact on people, and that is another one of those awards that has done that. Besides getting kudos from the fans, we are totally blessed to get anything."

With such a rabid fan base, what will Metallica fans fill the void with once the band calls it quits? "There's no reason for us to stop, first of all," Hetfield remarked. "As far as artists and musicians, they don't retire. They might tour less. We're having a blast doing what we're doing. It's a beautiful cycle, because they think we inspire them, but they inspire us. It feeds itself."

Metallica has played countless concerts over the years, but for Hetfield, a fairly recent group of shows stands out as a career highlight. "It's an easy answer... the 30 year anniversaries we did at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Hometown gigs, celebrating 30 years of being together with fans from every corner of the world (that) traveled in for those shows. We did four shows. We had guests coming up from Ozzy to Halford to Biff from Saxon. Just having people up singing, jamming, it was a beautiful time."

Metallica recently announced the lineup for their second Orion Music + More Festival, which moves to Detroit this year and will be held June 8 and 9. Watch the video interview with James Hetfield below: